Bear paw bandit extremely unlikely, Wildlife Resource Commission says

Bear N027 resting after a workup by researchers with the Asheville Urban/Suburban Bear Study, who captured 245 bears from 2014-2018 to radio collar, measure and weigh them.(Photo: Courtesy of Asheville Urban/Suburban Bear Study)

ASHEVILLE — Social media has spun spottings of tripod bears into an illicit international smuggling ring for left-front bear paws. Seriously.

A well-meaning group called Help Asheville Bears has offered a $7,000 reward (up from $5,000 a few days ago) for information leading to the person responsible for maiming bears in the Arden and Swannanoa area. According to their Facebook page, they believe they've tallied between six and eight animals who have lost paws to someone hoping to sell the parts on the black market.

Bears have plenty of things to worry about, according to wildlife biologist and resident bear expert at the Wildlife Resources Commission Justin McVey. But a paw-napper just isn't one of them.

"The Facebook post implied that there was some archaic trap snapping off paws," McVey said. "Traps are designed to do the exact opposite."

McVey added that he doesn't know of any traps that would be physically able to "pull off a paw."

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A bear walked into Hi-Wire Brewing's Biltmore Village location July 4, 2019.
Courtesy of Hi-Wire Brewing, Asheville Citizen Times

A strangely altruistic paw bandit?

Fundamentally, this M.O. wouldn't make sense. If you're after bear paws, there are better ways to do it than trapping a bear and lopping off just one.

It's perfectly legal to hunt bears in North Carolina during the appropriate seasons — for WNC, that's Oct. 14-Nov. 23 and again from Dec. 16-Jan. 1 this year. A bear stamp on your NC hunting license entitles you to one bear per season. It's even legal to bait and hunt bears using dogs during that first window, though that can be a grisly end.

In addition to legal harvesting during hunting season, there are illegal options more logical than making ursine tripods.

Trapping bears is illegal, but if a paw smuggler did have one in the bag, why would they leave three paws attached? Why would they take the extra effort to remove the paw without killing the bear (a tricky task indeed)? Do they secretly have a soft spot for bears, even as they are maiming and trafficking them?

If our hypothetical paw-smugglers weren't up for the rigmarole of trapping, "there are plenty of bears that get hit by cars that would be a better source," McVey said. That method, too, is illegal, McVey added.

Regardless of how a bear is harvested, selling its parts would be considered trafficking and is squarely illegal in North Carolina, McVey said.